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So I went in back on Sept 28th to renew my Ryan White for medical and dental services. Down here Ryan White is good for 1yr. I have the paper (eligibitlity notice) that says i'm good until Sept 28, 2011. One year of course. So i go in Friday for labs and the receptionist at the clinic calls me back to the window after i give her my appointment slip and tells me she needs to schedule and appointment for me to do Ryan White Eligibility!!!! She said it expires on Nov 30th. I always take that notice of eligilbity paper with me when i go in just to prove i'm enrolled and to show my expiration date.....i showed her............then she had to make a couple of calls and she tells me that they have centralized everything here in Broward County (not sure about the rest of the state) and I have to redo it because they need to scan my documents into the computer.

Ok, I was just really thrown for a loop. So she made an appt for me to redo the eligibility then I went down and talked to the new woman doing Ryan White. I was confused about a couple of things. She told me they needed to redo it and to bring in all my papers again so they could also scan them into the computer. I asked......."Well cant you get those documents from the computer already because when I did ADAP renewal they scanned everything into the system and when i went in on Sept 28 and did my Ryan White the guy (a different person was doing ryan white).........he pulled up all my documents from the adap files and printed them out and put them in my eligibility file?". She said no she didnt have access to ADAP files. I was like "hmmmmm". Then I told the new woman well cant you just go up to my files and pull my eligibility file and get the documents and rescan them?". She just said "NO". She said I have to bring in all the papers again........redo the whole thing.

I mean this state is in horrible financial condition in terms of adap and ryan white. 2060 people are on the waiting list for adap. They say they are trying to find ways of saving money with both programs but i hardly think making every single person come in and have to redo ryan white eligibility (thus doing it twice and in my case in a matter of 2 months) is hardly a money saver. What a huge waste of time and resources.

My partner is going thru the same thing he just did his on oct 8th. So I called down to the broward county health dept ryan white division and spoke to a few people they said that EVERYONE (thousands of people) is having to redo their ryan white eligibility. They said they were caught off guard by the state. They said i was lucky that i found out in time what my new expiration date is b/c people are going in for appointments and being turned away b/c their expiration dates were moved up and they were no longer enrolled in ryan white.

I'm not one of those huge conspiracy theory types ..............but this whole thing really smells funny. Not sure what they would accomplish by making people redo ryan white eligibility. Perhaps they are trying to weed people out some how. I have no clue how but just seems odd. I mean just wait til the next time a person is due for eligibility THEN u can scan the papers into the computer. There's absolutely no reason (esp in this financial state) that i can see why they have to make people come in and redo their eligibility when they have just done it........and like i said in my case just 2 months ago!

Oh, I forgot to add, one of my points to start this thread was to let Floridians on here that are enrolled in Ryan White be sure to call you clinic and have them check your expiration date to see what the new one is that way you dont miss out on any services.

Oh, I forgot to add, one of my points to start this thread was to let Floridians on here that are enrolled in Ryan White be sure to call you clinic and have them check your expiration date to see what the new one is that way you dont miss out on any services.

and with a staggering 2,246 individuals already on the waiting list in FL, those currently using ADAP should make sure not want to lose such a priveleged benefit.

However, for those NOT on ADAP and on the waiting list, there is free medication available!For more information check http://wellvista.org

About every two weeks NASTAD puts out a new ADAP Watch List profiling the state ADAP waiting lists and I've been updating the difference from the prior reports. Others too have been adding other ADAP-related info in that thread. At a recent SC HIV/AIDS task force meeting, the CEO of wellvista (housed in Columbia SC of all places LOL) spoke to us about this program and that by Jan they would be able to distribute nearly ALL hiv meds. (check out that thread for my write-up ). The wellvista program probably does deserve a thread of it's own.

(I used to have to keep making new ADAP threads because so many would go off-track LOL; but that one has hung around without going bonkers since late sept, so I've just keep updating there. I figured starting off 2011, I would make an undated ADAP update thread and try to keep it running for as long as possible.)

About every two weeks NASTAD puts out a new ADAP Watch List profiling the state ADAP waiting lists and I've been updating the difference from the prior reports. Others too have been adding other ADAP-related info in that thread. At a recent SC HIV/AIDS task force meeting, the CEO of wellvista (housed in Columbia SC of all places LOL) spoke to us about this program and that by Jan they would be able to distribute nearly ALL hiv meds. (check out that thread for my write-up ). The wellvista program probably does deserve a thread of it's own.

(I used to have to keep making new ADAP threads because so many would go off-track LOL; but that one has hung around without going bonkers since late sept, so I've just keep updating there. I figured starting off 2011, I would make an undated ADAP update thread and try to keep it running for as long as possible.)

Not to hijack this thread, but do you have any insight as to the motivation behind Abbott giving up the free meds? I'm not naive enough to believe it's out of the goodness of their hearts. No company with obligations to shareholders can sell that type of giveaway regardless of how humanitarian it is spun. Perhaps something buried in the new healthcare legislation that they are afraid of? The first thing I thought was that it reeked of an attempt to keep someone (government? regulators?) at bay. There must be something on the backend that the pharma company expects to gain from.

Not to hijack this thread, but do you have any insight as to the motivation behind Abbott giving up the free meds? I'm not naive enough to believe it's out of the goodness of their hearts. No company with obligations to shareholders can sell that type of giveaway regardless of how humanitarian it is spun. Perhaps something buried in the new healthcare legislation that they are afraid of? The first thing I thought was that it reeked of an attempt to keep someone (government? regulators?) at bay. There must be something on the backend that the pharma company expects to gain from.

i just started a thread about this in the benefits forum.their "donation" is part of their monetary contribution into healthcare reform. There is little goodness in their hearts when it comes to the bottom line. LOL

i just started a thread about this in the benefits forum.their "donation" is part of their monetary contribution into healthcare reform. There is little goodness in their hearts when it comes to the bottom line. LOL

South Florida attracts a lot northerners for the sun and fun so I'm not sure what anyone should be surprised of the ADAP health crisis down there... it's not due to the "locals" who were diagnosed there I guess.

This thread wasnt about ADAP eligibility (for prescriptions) i'm talking about changes in eligibility for Ryan White for medical and dental services.

One of the points of this thread was to inform other people living in Florida who didnt know about changes in Ryan White eligibility (Not ADAP)......as the expiration dates for everyone were changed by Tallahssee on Nov 1...........was so they could call their clinics and find out what their new expiration dates for Ryan White are as all people enrolled in Ryan White for medical/dental have been affected by this and have to go in and redo their Ryan White eligibility. Alot of people have been going in for lab and doctor appointments only to find out at the last minute their eligibility has expired due to the fact when the changes where made the good ole folks up in Tallahassee changed everyone's expiration dates (without informing us) so they would have to come in and redo Ryan White (medical/dental). (In my case twice in 3 months). This affects thousands of people.

This has nothing to do with ADAP.....no tinkering around has been done with expiration dates for people enrolled in ADAP down here. Not sure about how it is in other states and maybe why some people got confused by what i was talking about in my original post but down here we have to go into our pharmacy and do eligibility for ADAP and we have to go into our clinic to do eligibility for Ryan White. We dont have the convenience of enrolling/renewing both programs in the same place/at the same time. In the near future all Ryan White eligibility (not ADAP) will be done at a centralized location for everyone near downtown ft lauderdale and eligibility for Ryan White will no longer be done at an individual's clinic. ADAP however will remain the same you go to your pharmacy where you pick up your meds to renew/enroll in ADAP.

In fiscal year 2005, federal funding for the Ryan White Care Act was $2.1 billion. As of 2005, roughly one third of this money went to the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) which provides drugs for 30 percent of HIV-infected patients

I would like to apologize to the OP for the confusion between the Ryan White ADAP portion of the program and the medical/dental benefits of the Ryan White program. (here in SC, as it is up in OH, there is only one application/registration into the Ryan White Fund for medical services, ADAP, and/or other services which is easily handled through most ASOs. It's a shame to hear about all the confusion and mismanagement going on down in Florida, and hearing your points, Greg, it only shows why FL has the largest ADAP waiting list.)

As the Ryan White Fund is a payer-of-last-resort sort of catch-all for HIV-related medical care, prescriptions and a host of other services, alot of issues are funded through the Ryan White Act. 75% of the funding is marked for medical (which by the way can be used to make medical insurance payments to avoid the Fund actually paying for a medical bill); but the other 25% has more discretion and can be used for things like even housing and ultility payments.

Obviously it's a very confusing issue discussing the Ryan White program; but the same warnings from the OP and warnings in other ADAP thread do apply - stay up-to-date on your application because if allowed to expire it can drastically affect your housing, ADAP, medical, dental, insurance and utilities.

Yah everytime i go into re-enroll for Ryan White to get my medical and dental services they always tell me to go apply for medicaid. They are like a broken record i've told them a million times i make too much money to qualify for medicaid ......i've even gone on the medicaid website to see if i qualify and i dont. I've printed out the form that says i dont qualify and showed it to the Ryan White (medical/dental) eligibility workers but yet they persist!

I've spoken with several people in charge of services in the broward county health department and they are clueless why the state went in and changed everyone's ryan white medical/dental expiration date (moved them all up so everyone has to re-apply within the next couple of months). It's really disoncerting when your own officials at the county level have no clue what is going on. My partner's eligibility worker looked at his file on her computer and was confused and she didnt even have any clue. She said "I have no idea what is going on". I still think it's some sort of attempt to weed people out of the system to cut costs.

I wouldnt have even known my expiration date was changed from sept 28, 2011 to this nov 30th if i wouldnt have changed my appointment for my labs to an earlier date. Originally my labs were set to be taken 2nd week of december i would have went in and been turned away since my new expiration date is nov 30th. The receptionists at my clinic say they are going nuts having to turn people away because people go in thinking they are enrolled in ryan white not knowing their expiration date was changed and they expired.

The least the state could have done was notify everyone by letter of this change. The fact they kept everyone in the dark and people are either being turned away for medical services or finding out at the last moment they need to re-apply for ryan white medical/dental seems a bit fishy.

There are over 7,000 people here alone in broward county that receive medical services thru Ryan White Part A. Each and every one of those people now have to redo their eligibility no matter what date their last re-certification was. Even just a few months ago like me or like my partner he did his just in the last part of october. Again, i stress the huge waste of time, resources/money this is. And yes this is exactly why this piss poor state is in the financial crisis it is.

So I go in Nov 29th and re-do my Ryan White eligibility re-enrollment. They tell me to just bring in everything i brought in on sept 28th. Yet they have my file right there that has all those same documents in it!. It's like being in a circus..........jumping thru hoops on steriods.... here in florida! Moving to Canada looks so much more inviting each and every day!

Wow I cant believe with over 7000 people in broward county receiving Ryan White Part A Medical/Dental services no one else from ft lauderdale has commented in this thread. Anyone in Ft Lauderdale out there?? LOL.

Actually I think moving these threads from the "Living with HIV" has hurt views of threads in this section and most people really dont look at this section. Moderator is there anyway we can move threads like this back into the Living with HIV section? I mean afterall having to deal with programs like Ryan White is part of Living with HIV.

Greg

Logged

BobF

With respect, please keep this forum going and do NOT go back to including these issues in a random way in the Living with HIV forum. It's been a great addition to this site to have a specific board to review for these complex benefit-type issues.